Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Marker Prevention

Another cyclist was struck and killed in Spokane. He reportedly failed to stop at a stop sign. Sadly, I see this type of behavior all the time. On the way to work yesterday morning a woman about 100 feet in front of me clearly had time to stop when the light turned yellow and yet she began pedaling faster. In spite of her acceleration she still entered the intersection after the light turned red. As she entered the intersection she quickly looked left and right as if that would make any difference to a car approaching at speed.

I've seen the topic of saying something to cyclists violating traffic laws addressed before. Instead of replaying the arguments for and against I thought I'd offer a different approach.

Introduce yourself and ask them their name. Then say something along the lines of, "I just wanted to know who you are so I'll make a connection if I ever read about you in the paper."

Hopefully that prompts a question about how they would get in the paper.

"Well, if you keep (insert traffic violation here) I figure it's just a matter of time before you get hit. And when that happens I can tell people that I met you once. And what a shame because you seemed like a nice person."